Europe

When it comes to traveling, my heart is always drawn back to my favorite continent: Europe.In the past 5 years, I've visited three times, and so I'd like to think I know a thing or two about getting started with planning a Eurotrip; but even so I still find myself getting overwhelmed by it all. I know a lot of you have had dreams and plans of visiting Europe one day but have no idea where to start, and so I decided to create a guide with all the basics to help kickstart your planning.

Paris. My favorite city on earth. A city known for it's beautiful Haussaman buildings, endless cafés, rich history, and I suppose the famed "snobbish" Parisians. I've been to Paris a total of three times in the last 4 years, clearly I can't get enough of this place.

Confession time: I'm sick of typical hotels with their boring cliche interiors. Lloyd Hotel, upon stumbling upon it on the internet, was an immediate 10/10 in my book. There are quite a few things the Lloyd Hotel & Cultural Embassy can brag about: they're the first 1-to-5 star design hotel in the world...

As a creative person, nothing excites me more than coming across aesthetically pleasing places & spaces. I've discovered a quirky, fun and incredibly unique hotel in Amsterdam called Hotel The Exchange -- and yes, I got to sleep here for a night. Before you feast your eyes on the beautiful photos of the hotel I took, let me give you a brief background on what Hotel The Exchange is all about...

It rained the entire time majority of the time in Amsterdam. A stark difference from the last time I was there. It made the ambience of the city a little more charming, but somewhat depressing too (the cold + wet weather tends to do that to you). We didn't have a set itinerary for Amsterdam, our mood being in a very "come what may" manner.

Burg Eltz was a castle I randomly saw a photo of online and fell in love with the way it looked, so when we were planning the Eurotrip I made sure it was a castle we had to visit. Luckily, it was on the way. If we were to travel from Bern to Amsterdam, a stop in Germany would not only be welcome, but convenient as well.

The date is the 10th of October. Gab and I made our way to Germany from Switzerland, with two heavy backpacks, missing our train in the process. Actually, we didn't technically miss the train. We got on in time, but decided to change train coaches, and the moment we got off, we hadn't realized the train was due to leave that exact moment too.

If you ever find yourself in Switzerland, don't miss out on the chance to visit the alps and the alpine villages, trust me on this. You'll be missing out on sceneries that will take your breath away, that will make you fall in love with mother nature, that will make you never want to leave such a place.

Let's go back to October 7, 2015 when Gab and I made our way to Bern, Switzerland from Paris and we stayed at a beautiful holiday home turned youth hostel situated in the quiet village of Leissigen. Did I mentioned it sits right by Lake Thun making it a youth hostel with its own beach?

When Gab and I were planning our Eurotrip, we knew first hand that we didn't want to miss visiting Switzerland, with one goal in mind: visiting the Swiss Alps. Bern, the capital of Switzerland (not Zurich!) is a UNESCO world heritage site due to sandstone houses, narrow streets, and beautiful fountains, all well preserved dating back to medieval times...

Paris will be a city that I'll probably find myself visiting time and time again, if not live in. Gab, on the other hand, never really understood why I loved Paris so much, or why I dreamed of living there in the future...

If you told me exactly a year ago that I'd be going on a Eurotrip with my boyfriend, I would've rolled my eyes and said, "As if... I don't have the finances for it." but a lot has changed since then. This whole Eurotrip plan actually began last year when Gab decided to book tickets to the Hamlet play...

Being a Philippine passport holder, you'll just have to assume that you will be required to apply for a tourist visa in the Philippines for every single first world country you may want to visit. It's the harsh reality, unfortunately. My U.K. visa would be the third time I'll have applied for a tourist visa, so you'd imagine I'd have this entire process down to a tee.

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I've heard about family & friends going on cruises and having the best time, so it always tickled my curiosity of what it's actually like to sleep on a ship, with the waves rocking you back and forth, taking advantage of on-board activities or just doing absolutely nothing (my kind of relaxation), and then docking in a new city to explore for a day.

I've always heard of Bali being a top destination for nearly everyone I know. We all know I'm a Europe kind of girl, so Bali never really made it to my list of Top 10 anything. I quite honestly didn't know what to expect, and I hate to admit that the only thing that really came into my mind upon hearing the world "Bali" was surfing and beaches. Of course, like any person with presumptions, I was most definitely wrong... and I'm glad I was.

Living in the Philippines means having thousands upon thousands of beaches to visit on account of the 7,107 islands that make this country. On my 26th birthday, Gab and I decided to pack up the car and drive a few hours to the town of Padre Burgos in Pagbilao, Quezon, relying only on the ever so glitchy Waze app.